Fellow Englishman Rosenior has impressed since taking over at Strasbourg and is helping to relaunch Chilwell’s career.
“It wasn’t my top choice, but then I spoke to the manager. It was only a 10-minute call, and I rang my agent straight away after and said, ‘Yes, let’s get Strasbourg done,'” Chilwell explained.
“Liam said I’d be surprised how much I’d enjoy it. He still thought I could improve and said he would ask me to play certain roles I haven’t played before, which has already started to happen.
“Then there’s the leadership side of it. I’ve been in changing rooms with serial winners and know how to be in a group that wins stuff. It just seemed like a no-brainer and a pretty perfect fit.
“I’m definitely shocked at the quality. There are a lot of people going straight to the top here, and I include the manager in that. The league is good and the stadiums are full.
“We’ve shown we can compete with PSG and the manager has big ambitions to win stuff this season and qualify for the Champions League.”
Chilwell is fulfilling a dream to play overseas, but it didn’t stop his mum worrying about the move – a person who has only grown in importance to Chilwell since he lost his father Wayne in 2023.
“He is the reason that I am where I am,” he continued. “I’ve got to thank him for everything. The silver lining is it made me, my mum and my sister closer. I am more resilient and level-headed about football.”
Since Todd Boehly and Clearlake bought Strasbourg for £65m in 2023, Chilwell is their oldest outfield signing, in what is now Europe’s youngest squad in the top five leagues.
One of his lessons involves warnings about the pitfalls of social media: “I tell the young players to trust me that it’s not a good path to go down. I don’t have access to my Twitter or my Instagram – I let my agent do it.
“When I was younger, I’d scroll through Twitter to find that one bad comment and focus on that despite 50 good comments. I probably got told when I was younger and still kept doing it, but one day you just say, ‘I’m not doing that anymore.'”
Chilwell is learning French, even though all but two players in the squad speak English, and reeled off the fact that Strasbourg’s cathedral was the world’s biggest building until 1874. He also feels mature enough to live overseas without the help of friends or family, and this adventure appears to have lit a fire in him.
“I’ve had days where I’ve said to my mum, ‘I’ve won almost everything, I’ve played for my country, what’s the point in going through all these ups and downs? Like, what’s the point?’
“She said, ‘Because of that feeling when you walk on the pitch,’ and I knew that anyway, but coming to Strasbourg has completely brought that back – the excitement to go into training and play.
“I was just falling out of love with football because I’d not played – now it’s 60,000 mad fans at Lyon. I’ve been injury-free for two years and just needed an opportunity.”
He added: “It makes me laugh that people think I’m an old player at 28 – I’m really in my prime. That’s why the World Cup is an ambition… there’s so much to achieve.
“First things first, I want to play well here, be healthy, and then the rest – the World Cup – may follow. If I can say I gave everything but don’t achieve it then it’s not the end of the world. I’ll still be enjoying my football, and only be 29.”
